The present invention relates to the field of detection and diagnosis of ovulation in female mammals through the detection of secondary characteristics occurring during or at the time of ovulation, and more particularly to the identification of and detection of secondary characteristics as they appear in human females.
There has for many years been a need to detect and diagnose the precise time of ovulation in a given female mammal. It can be of great importance, for example, to pinpoint the time of ovulation to insure that fertilization occurs. Alternatively, it may be important for other medical reasons to diagnose ovulation.
Economically, it is of great interest to livestock breeders, particularly cattle breeders, to be able to detect the times of ovulation of cows in the herd in order to insure that offspring production is maximized. In dairy herds, for example, conventional techniques for determining ovulation result in as many as 50% of the ovulatory cycles of a given cow being undetected by the breeder. Since artificial insemination is now almost exclusively used to produce fertilization, auxillary means capable of detecting each incidence of ovulation is in great demand.
Other than those tests suggested in the above mentioned related patents and patent applications, there are no simple, inexpensive tests by which a doctor, breeder or other individual may diagnose the occurrence of ovulation. Since the occurrence of subsequent vaginal bleeding may not be a reliable indicator that ovulation has indeed occurred, and since, in many instances, it would be desirable to begin treatment for suspected condition without awaiting the onset of menstruation to determine that ovulation has, in fact, occurred, a need exists for a method to accurately diagnose the occurrence of ovulation at the time of its occurrence during a menstrual cycle.
The occurrence of ovulation can be established with some certainty through various prior art methods. For a review of the surgical, clinical and biochemical or histological techniques heretofore suggested to diagnose ovulation and to predict the onset of the fertile period, please refer to the descriptions appearing in the above mentioned related patents and patent applications, and particularly to columns 1-5 of U.S. Pat. No. 4,119,089.
Although the above mentioned patents and patent applications have added to the armamentarium of methods for diagnosing the occurrence of ovulation, a need nonethless exists to develop other methods and techniques which may be used alone or in combination with existing methods to pinpoint the time of mammalian ovulation.